Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Pineapple Stencil

I drew this for my mother, who wanted a pineapple drawn for the slate that hangs in our mudroom. I was happy to oblige because I've been interested in creating a stencil for some time. The process of doing this was definitely a learning experience.

On the left is the original digital version done in two layers + background and on the left is the combined stencils painted over in acrylics by master painter and fellow blogger, my mother. You can check out her blog here.

For anyone interested in the process, I'll explain a little of what I learned! Well, I originally thought I would only have to cut out two stencils, paint them on top of one another, and be done with it. But, it became apparent that I didn't give it as much thought as I should have. With both layers, I had drawn details that weren't all connected to other parts of the same layer. This was headache-inducing because cutting out and taping these small pieces of transparency isn't exactly easy and keeping track of them is like searching for your contact lenses after they've fallen out...on to grass...in the dark.

So, some improvisation was called for. What I ended up doing was, first: I cut out the outline of the pineapple and had that painted green. Next, with the reverse of that stencil (which contained the holes white highlights), had that painted in the tope/yellow color. After that, unfortunately, I had to deal with all the separate leave parts that would cover the lighter parts when the brown layer was painted. Luckily, my mother is an expert manipulator of double-sided tape, so, securing them to the slate wasn't as bad as you might think.

In the end it was all worth it, of course. It turned out very similar to my original digital version. I can't thank my mother enough for her careful taping and painting of my stencil, patience is surely a virtue of hers.